Human Nature
The campers next to them were noisy, rude, and downright obnoxious. She winced as more profanity echoed through the woods. Her husband had insisted that camping would be "educational and wholesome fun for the kids." He'd sure gotten the educational part right!
That morning, they packed up their belongings to head to another campground. But, when they were about to pull out...
As part of a quarterly contest, and the first writing contest I had ever entered, those exact words were sent to my e-mail inbox with a twenty-four hour deadline and a maximum of nine-hundred words.
Here is my submission: Human Nature. Enjoy, and I hope this is the first of many morsels I can place on your literary plate to sample!
Let me know your thoughts in the comments below.
Human Nature
By: A.J. Charles
“So unfortunate,” Derek said. The Odyssey pulled off the lot onto Sixth Lane. “You’d think adults would be more considerate of each other.”
“For real.” Cynthia shook her head in reply to her husband, her short, tight ponytail brushing along the nape of her neck.
Derek reached to the passenger side and placed a hand above her tanned knee. He gave a soft squeeze of her leg below the hem of her khaki shorts. “Thanks for checking with the rental office this morning while we packed up, Cindy.”
“Sure. Not surprised there was no chance to move us. It is Independence Day weekend.”
Derek slowed the van and nodded towards a family crossing the walkway. Even in the campground, he kept both hands firmly upon the wheel at ten-and-two, following the posted fifteen mile-per-hour limit. “Was looking forward to getting the kids on the kayaks today.” He glanced at the rear-view mirror, Tommy and Lucy belted into their seats amidst their collection of belongings.
“We don’t have to go to another campground, you know. Get the kids home to play and relax, watch the parade and fireworks in town tonight.”
“Just upset,” he said. “I wanted to do something educational and fun for the kids this weekend. Wholesome, you know?” He kept his hands on the wheel and swiveled his head towards the back of the van. “You guys have fun?”
Lucy called out with a monotone yell only children are capable of. “I liked the ice cream!”
“I want to mini-golf again!” Tommy followed.
As Derek pulled onto the main drive, Cynthia murmured, “I’m just happy to be away from them.”
Her family arrived to Friendly Cedars on Friday afternoon, Derek declaring “This is nature” to the children after pitching tents and emptying bricks of charcoal into the grill that came with the lot. She paid little mind to the RVs set up in the adjacent lot through the copse of trees, but when they returned Saturday from their slate of miniature golf, lazy rivers, and ice cream, the crassness of the nearby campers proved too loud and rude to ignore.
Derek winced at the cackles emitting from the foul language they spewed. “Someone should really tell them there are kids around.”
“Ignore them,” she said. “The kids are.” She pointed to Tommy and Lucy, giggling and racing around the nearby trees.
“Yeah, Cindy, except these people sound like they’re older than us, should at least be respectful of others.”
“So? We’re almost thirty-five.” She kept her eyes focused on the book in her lap. Shifting the light clipped onto the book, Cynthia adjusted in her canvas chair and attempted ignoring the party going on behind her. She sipped at a canned cocktail, reading disrupted by a song she used to know the words to.
The moon gleamed high in the night sky as the music held. The language from the RVs became fouler, the jokes more obnoxious and constantly edging towards a more mature audience than the one Cynthia traveled with.
“I’m going to say something,” Derek said. Cynthia knew he wouldn’t. “In the morning. When we leave.”
“Leave?”
“Listen, Cindy. If this is going to get worse all weekend, I don’t want Tommy and Lucy subjected to it. It’s rude, it’s disrespectful. Heck, I couldn’t concentrate when I responded to my boss with the June statistics. Imagine if one of the numbers was wrong because of those, those…drunk jackasses!”
“Der, the kids are wiped out and sleeping. Go to bed if you want.” Cynthia’s lips turned upwards. “Promise to tell them to quiet down if it keeps up.”
Derek entered the tent, but the noise hadn’t stopped. For the sake of her family, she stamped through the trees with a strong mind to tell the group what she had meant to say all day.
“What’s your name?” they asked when she arrived. She tried her darndest to issue a stern warning on behalf of Derek only to be handed a drink and invited to join in the fun. The redirect simmered any vitriol she arrived with.
“Cyn, Cynthia.” The company of three before her were no older than forty, two males and a female.
“Welcome to first Friday, Cyn,” one of the men said. Handsome with a rugged edge, he sat across a firepit from the apparent couple. “Pretty name. I’m Sean. Pull up a chair…”
Cynthia brought her attention back to the present as Derek drove alongside the common areas of the campground nearest to the exit.
“Wait,” she said. “Pull in here.”
“What’s wrong?” Derek asked.
“Nothing.” Cyn turned towards Tommy and Lucy. “Would you guys like to come back, try this again?”
“Yeah!” they shouted in unison.
Cynthia smirked and thought how she had become intrigued as the prior night wore on, less distracted and more determined to find a part of her she missed, a part that desperately loved pulling her hair out of that rigid, little ponytail. She had enjoyed herself and returned to Derek, fast asleep in the tent when she re-entered from her own sort of educational excursion.
“I’ll talk to the rental office about another date. How’s the first Friday in August?”